The Castrigg fortlet lies in the upper Eden valley in Cumbria, on or near the line of the Roman road running south from Brougham (Brocavum) towards the Stainmore Pass and Bowes. As a small military post it would have housed a detachment of perhaps 20–50 men, functioning as a road-watch or signal station; comparable fortlets on the Stainmore route (e.g. Maiden Castle, Bowes Moor) were active from the late 1st through the 2nd centuries AD, with some use continuing into the later Roman period.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site forms part of the dense network of small posts that policed the strategically critical trans-Pennine corridor linking the Eden valley to the forts at Bowes and Greta Bridge, securing communications between the legionary base at York and the western Cumbrian frontier zone. Fortlets of this type were essential to the routine functioning of Roman military logistics rather than to combat, controlling movement and providing secure overnight stops.
Very little is published on the Castrigg fortlet specifically; it is known principally as an earthwork/cropmark identified through field survey, and no significant excavation appears to have been undertaken. Its identification rests on morphology — a small rectangular enclosure consistent with known fortlet plans — rather than on stratified finds.
The Castrigg fortlet lies in the upper Eden valley in Cumbria, on or near the line of the Roman road running south from Brougham (Brocavum) towards the Stainmore Pass and Bowes. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman fortlet, 200m SSE of Castrigg is classified as a Roman fortlet — a military site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Roman camp, 350m east of Redlands Bank (2.9 km), Brav(o)niacum (5 km), Kirkby Thore Roman Fort and Associated Vicus (5.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Roman fortlet, 200m SSE of Castrigg